In sickness and in health
by Gokuyams
Summary: When Gerome comes down with the flu, he doesn't want anyone to know, for fear of looking weak in front of the other Shepherds. Nevertheless, people worry and a certain Ylisse prince just wants to help his crush.


Hello everyone! I must say that this is my first story, so I'm pretty nervous. This is a prompt I did for Fe kink meme. I must warn you that this story contains boy/boy love and that Fire Emblem Awakening is not mine. Regardless, I hope you enjoy!

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He thought he could hide it from him, he thought that if he kept a great distance from him for the whole day, then he wouldn't be figured out. He didn't know how and why it happened, just that after he came back from killing some Risen that appeared near the camp he noticed a strange soreness in his throat and he started to feel drowsy. He overlooked it as a sign that he needed to drink some water and the drowsiness? Being that he sleeps the worst out of the whole army, he didn't pay his drowsiness no mind at all. Nevertheless, as soon as he came back he went to his tent that he was sharing with Inigo (much to his annoyance) and fell asleep soon, hoping that his symptoms would soon die down. If only that did happen.

When he woke the next morning, the soreness in his throat had doubled and with it, a "lovely" headache. When he moved to sit he also noticed a soreness in his muscles. "_Just wonderful,_" he thought as he slowly got up and started to change. He checked to see if his comrade was still sleeping, to that he was. He could see that his ally was still fully clothed, curled up in a fetal position with tear stains on his pillow. Gerome would have chuckled, seeing that Inigo's late night to seduce women failed yet again, but he was in too much pain to do much now. Instead, he affectionately pushed his bangs out of his face and shook his friend, telling him to wake up, hearing the raspiness in it. Inigo opened his eyes and scan his friend. His hopes of his friend overlooking his illness was short-lived as Inigo responded, "Gerome, you look so pale! What happened?" Inigo quickly got up and tried to put his hand on his head, but Gerome roughly grabbed his wrist in order to stop him, that hadn't stopped him from quietly remarking, "Your hands are burning hot." This made Gerome remove his hand quickly and change the rest of his clothing, put his mask on and leave the tent without saying a word to Inigo, who looked on as his friend left with concern. "_Just don't talk to him today again,_" he thought as he made his way to the tent where breakfast would be served, "_He won't notice that I'm ill._"

Inigo would admit that his friend was acting awfully queer that morning. Gerome was too pale and burning hot to be considered normal for that day. He was also carrying a hoarse voice when he woke him from his sleep. It was bad enough that Severa had pointed out that his crush would never requite his love for him , but now his said crush was coming down with a bug! If the world wasn't cruel enough with Grima around, then it was now that Gerome was sick. His theory was proven true in the end as he arrived for breakfast. He was sitting next to Owain as he and Brady joked and teased one another. To his right was an empty seat in which Inigo quickly took (much to the Gerome's dismay).

From where Inigo was sitting, he could see his mother and father, Chrom, along with the tactician and her husband, Priam. Though, he had little time to pay attention to what they were doing as he refocused his attention to Gerome. The boy struggled to swallow his venison; he would slowly take a bite, wait a couple of minutes, and continue doing just that. This strange behavior seemed to attract someone other than Inigo's attention across the table as Cynthia blurted out, "It's funny how you're eating today Gerome! Is it so you don't choke on your food?"

"I don't think that's the problem Cynthia." Morgan sighed as he shook his head at his girlfriend.

"I agree Morgan, Gerome, you don't look so good today, have you come down with something?" Lucina asked. Inigo saw as Gerome tensed up, then saw him try to relax as he replied, "I am perfectly fi-" The Wyvern rider gripped at his stomach and mouth so fiercely as he quickly spun around and escaped the tent, leaving the children and older allies to look surprised of the sudden movement. Laurent then decided to break the silence by stating, "He must be ill, specifically, with a flu."

"How can you tell? Is it infectious? You guys do realize I'm the last Taguel on earth, which is why it's important to-" Nah cupped her hand over Yarne's mouth as Laurent continued, " How could I not notice? The sweaty hair, his paler complexion, his rough voice, and he occasionally would rub his muscles, indicating that they were sore. I was going to point out his odd behavior had Cynthia not beat me to it first."

"Well, what will help him recover quicker?" Inigo bursted out as Laurent fix his glasses on his nose properly, "The flu should last two to five days if he's lucky, during those days he going to have multiple things happen to him: coughing, congestion, and a fever. The best anyone could do for him is give him plenty of water, since all that sweating will get him dehydrated quickly; he should also get plenty of rest and try to make him eat something, soup will help his cilia protect his body from any more diseases." Laurent took Lucina's and his empty plates as he finished, "I will make a remedy that will reduce the soreness of his muscles and send it to the tent immediately when I'm done."

"But couldn't we just use a healing staff?! I mean if they can heal open cuts, couldn't they possibly heal fevers?" Cynthia pondered as Brady shook his head, "Sorry, staffs don't work like that, staffs can only close open wounds not fight illnesses, though that would be really cool if they did."

"Agreeable my good man, just think, in the future heroes will actually be able to ward off sickness in hand to hand combat!" Owain voiced as he pumped his fist in the air. Unable to stand anymore of Brady and Owain's conversation anymore, Inigo left to head to the kitchen in order to make some soup for his friend. He just hoped that Gerome would get better, the thought of the male rider unable to help the Shepherds pained his heart..

Gerome couldn't believe he had did that! He had rushed out of the tent and ran all the way outside of camp, just to release his vomit on the ground behind a tree. While he was doing this he didn't notice a hand going to touch his shoulder. Gerome immediately tensed up once again as he turned quickly, expecting to see a foe. He certainly wished it was a foe instead of who he saw. It was the former exalt, Emmeryn. The next words from him stumbled out of his mouth, "Oh Naga... I'm so sorry you had to see that, please forgive me." He was about to bend down to beg the exalt for forgiveness, but she quickly stopped him.

"Please... don't..." He stopped himself but didn't make eye contact with her as she said, "I heard you... when Gangrel and me... were going to breakfast... are you... okay?" Gerome didn't know how to respond to her, he didn't want to lie to the exalt but at the same time he didn't want to say yes, to admit he was sick. It was showing that he was weak, and he definitely didn't want to seem that in front of the exalt. She already seemed to have read his mind as she told him, "It's okay... we're only human... We get sick... every once in awhile... it doesn't make... you any weaker..." She patted him on his head, much to Gerome's disdain because his brown hair was wet with his sweat. "Even soldiers... need rest..." Gerome bowed his head as he hurried to his tent to do just that, passing Gangrel as he sped by.

All of it was just... embarrassing, to say the least. And his luck was not on his side as he saw Inigo with a platter with soup and tea on it walking towards him. Gerome tried to avoid him by walking in the other direction, but, like said previously, luck was not on his side today. He felt as all his energy was drained from him in that instant and black was all he could see as he heard Inigo's voice.

He awoken with a groan as the image of Inigo appeared again, a wide smile across his face. He groaned again. "I'm glad you're awake Gerome! For a second I thought you were going to get a nasty bump on your head, but then Basilio was near and caught you just in time and helped me take you into the tent and-"

"Please be quiet Inigo, my head hurts." Gerome grumbled as he pushed his hair revealing that he didn't have his mask on, as a matter of fact, he didn't have anything but his briefs on. Gerome jumped quickly on that, "Where are my clothes!?" He grunted as he brought the blanket closer.

"You were sweating so I took them off in order to stop you from sweating more into your armor! Though you need some clothing for when the chills kicks in, let me go get some for you!" Soon enough he came back with some basic clothing, nothing too fancy.

As Gerome settled once more into his pillow, a cup of tea was presented to him, "It's ginger tea, Laurent said that the ginger will help with the nausea so you can eat your soup without throwing it back up a-and the honey is suppose to help you with your throat!" Gerome stared at Inigo, why was he being so... nice? When he thought Inigo would find out, he would be disgusted and stay far away from him as possible to avoid getting sick. Instead, he was here offering him some tea and fluffing his pillow as Gerome took the tea cup in his hand. Once he emptied the cup he laid back down as Inigo bundled him up and presented him with a green potion, "It's to stop the ache in your muscles." Gerome try to grabbed the bottle, but Inigo put it out of hands reach, blushing furiously as he stuttered, "Actually, i-it would be b-better if I gave it to y-you..." Gerome in his usual state would quickly deny him of that action, but he was sick with a headache and didn't want to fight with Inigo currently, he slowly nodded his head as he opened his mouth. Inigo smiled as he opened the cap and filled a spoon with the thick green liquid and put it in his mouth. The taste was absolutely terrible, but he swallowed it without making a face.

He saw Inigo put down the bottle and appear with a bowl of soup, feeding it to him without his consent, but regardless ate from him. He soon felt himself feeling a bit better after the soup, when he heard Inigo chuckle. Gerome raised his brow but saw what Inigo was chuckling for. It was his Minerva's head poking out from the entrance, her big eyes filled with concern as Gerome reached out to stroke her snout. "Minerva must have heard you were sick." he quietly said as he stroked her neck. Gerome sighed, people knew that he was ill, even if he tried to hide it. Now he seemed weak in front of the other Shepherds. The thought was fleeting as sleep took hold of him.

As soon as Gerome fell asleep, Cherche came into the tent, and smiled as he tucked her son's arm into the blanket. "You did a good job taking care of him for me, I would have done it but I had to go get rid of some Risen near the camp." Inigo smiled as he replied, "Nothing to worry about now, in a few days he'll be good as new." Cherche smiled as she excused herself and Minerva muttering to herself about where her husband could be hiding. As the day ended, Inigo went and retrieved a bucket full of water and a rag, coming back immediately. He rung the rag out, looking at Gerome. His expression softened when he saw them breathing slowly, so calm. He didn't care if Gerome would never love him. All he wanted was to help and spend time with Gerome like this day. The thought that Gerome would marry someone else and have children with his spouse was fine by Inigo; as long as he could have these little moments with him, it would be just fine for him. Slowly, he lowered his head to Gerome's face, and planted his lips to Gerome's forehead. "Goodnight Gerome," he whispered. The romantic moment was short lived as he heard a awkward cough in the corner. Inigo quickly spun around as his stomach dropped to the floor to confirm who it was. It was Kellam, Gerome's father, as Inigo stuttered, "W-what- how are - why are you here?!"

Kellam chuckled nervously, "I came when you left for the bucket of water, I said hello to you but you probably didn't see me. You came back and I started to speak to you but I guess you didn't hear me." There was a long awkward silence until Kellam excused himself from the tent. If their was one word to sum up what Inigo was feeling right now, the perfect word would be... embarrassed.

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So what did you guys think? If you have any comments or concerns, please comment! I don't know if I'm going to continue this, so your reviews are very much appreciated.


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